Al Wilson’s NIE Tips 2.21.12

AMERICAN HISTORY:

 

Item #1  Replicas of the Nina and Pinta are visiting cities along the Louisiana and Texas Gulf coast on different dates March – May, and along the Atlantic coast later in the summer.  For a schedule see:  www.thenina.com

 

Item #2  A “Mob Museum” opened in Las Vegas on the 83rd anniversary of the St. Valentine’s Day massacre in Chicago.  A second museum is scheduled to open later this year.  It will be “Mob Attraction Las Vegas.”

 

Item #3  The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati has been saved from closing by its merger with the Cincinnati Museum Center.  The Freedom Center opened in 2004, but has not been able to meet expenses.

 

Item #4  The S.S. Port Nicholson, a British merchant ship torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1942 during WWII, has been located 50 miles off the coast of Cape Cod.  The ship was carrying platinum bars that now may be worth more than $3 billion.

 

Item #5  King Charles II’s 1681 land grant to William Penn will be displayed at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, March 3 – 11.  This is the Penn Charter.

 

Item #6  Monday was Presidents’ Day.  You might like to look at www.mountvernon.org

 

DRIVERS’ EDUCATION:

 

Item #1  There was been an 11% increase in fatalities for 16 & 17-year-old drivers in the first half of 2011 over 2010.  Twenty-three states saw an increase; 19 had a decrease; and eight saw no change.  Source:  Governors Highway Safety Association.

 

Item #2  The U.S. Transportation Department wants to pit technology against technology to prevent accidents cause by distracted drivers.  They are saying cars should be designed to refuse to send tweets, texts or Facebook messages while they are moving.  For now, this would only apply to systems built into cars by the manufacture, not phones or gadgets installed by the owners.

 

GOVERNMENT:

 

Item #1  A USDA inspector opened the lunch box of a 4-year-old girl and deemed her lunch of a turkey & cheese sandwich, a banana, apple juice and potato chips not healthy because it contained no vegetables.  The girl was forced to buy the school lunch containing chicken nuggets, and mother received a bill.  Government regulations and over reach gone too far.

 

Item #2  General Motors earned record profits in 2011 of $7.6 billion.  How much in taxes will they pay on this profit?  According to the government bankruptcy bailout agreement, maybe zero.  Be alert for news of this and see if this is true.

 

Item #3  On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will rule on the Stolen Valor Act.  This should provoke an interesting class discussion before students know how the Court rules.  Is lying about your military record constitutional and protected by the First Amendment?   The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit said the Stolen Valor Act is unconstitutional.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ruled the law was constitutional.  How can it be constitutional to lie to gain an advantage in something or over someone?

 

Item #4  Congress passed the “tax cut” bill this past week.  It makes political sense to call this a tax cut, but it’s economic nonsense because it is under funding social security which is already in big financial trouble.  One journalist said the statements the president has made about the “tax cut” is fiscal fraud.

 

HEALTH:

 

Item #1  Each year in the United States, 10,000 animals and 1,400 children die from anti-freeze poisoning.  Anti-freeze smells and tastes sweet.  This fact should be discussed in every health and social studies class.

 

Item #2  The cancer drug for children, methotrexate, is in short supply, and doctors are alarmed because it is a key treatment for acute lymphobastic leukemia, a common childhood cancer.

 

MATH:

 

Item #1  A state lottery reported that eight people won $5,397.00; 1,132 people won $56.00; and 24,200 people won $3.00.  What was the total payout?

Answer:  $179,168.00

 

Item #2  A minor league baseball team purchased 30 bats from an Illinois bat maker for $1,419.36.  What was the cost of each bat?

Answer:  $47.31  This made news because the bat company had trouble collecting their money.

 

Item #3  Carl Edwards won the pole for the Daytona 500 this Sunday by running 194.738 mph.  Last Saturday, Kyle Busch beat Tony Stewart in the Budweiser Shootout by 0.013 of a second.  Let’s assume that Busch was running 195 mph.  By how many feet or inches did he beat Stewart?

Answer:  3 ft. 8 1/2 inches.

 

195 mph X 5,280 = 1,029,600 ft. a car can travel per hour.

1,029,600 divided by 3,600 = 286 ft. per second.

286 X .013 = 3.718 or about 3 ft. 8 1/2 inches.  Find a picture of the exciting finish in your newspaper.

 

TECHNOLOGY:

 

Item #1  Who is monitoring the apps kids have on their phones?  The government has complained that software companies producing games and other mobile applications aren’t telling parents what personal information is being collected from kids and how companies are using it.

 

Item #2  On February 14, the Federal Aviation Administration switched from radar to an air-traffic control system based on GPS technology.  Not all people in the airline industry are thrilled with this.  What are the pros and cons of the new system?

 

Item #3  Physicists in Australia and Purdue University have worked together to build a working transistor from a single phosphorus atom embedded in a silicon crystal.  This quantum computer may lead us into a nanoscale world.  Quantum computers are built from devices called qubits.  No, I don’t know what all this means either.

 

WEIRD NEWS:

 

Firefighters in New Castle, PA, were called because an electrical outlet on the floor was smoking only to find the smoke was caused by the family cat urinating on the outlet.

 

A New York City school was fired because she faked her daughter’s death so she could take a Caribbean vacation.

 

A jury cleared a 67-year-old Pennsylvania woman of marijuana possession when she told them she simply tossed a hand full of seeds into her garden after a bearded man gave them to her.

 

A couple lost a $4,500.00 wedding ring.  It was found later in the stomach of their 10-month-old basset hound.

 

VOCABULARY:

 

nefarious, cairn, fiduciary, cretin, ephemeral, azimuth, denigration, dendrites, dereliction, castigate, divergent, renege, calamitous, prattle, diminution, platitude, pique

 

WORLD GEOGRAPHY:

 

Locate:  Honduras, Sri Lanka, Finland, Argentina, Chile, Austria